My journey as a West Coast transplant, living and learning in the South, on my ongoing quest to prove that a smart scientist can still maintain a little bit of style.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving! My favorite holiday. Folks coming together to enjoy a meal filled with family traditions and no expectations of gifts or staying up late. And my birthday. What a winner. This year was another lovely day.

We woke up early and walked to downtown Carrboro where nearly everyone we know was running the Gobble and Gorge. We chatted with friends and then ran the 8k race through Carrboro. Trent stayed with me for the first 3 miles and then took off, luckily fellow Ph.D'er and Davis-alum Cheryl ran with me, I was feeling a little rough having not eaten breakfast! But we finished in 35 minutes, a respectable 7 minutes per mile pace. Not too shabby.

Home for showers, breakfast, naps, lots of cleaning. House started to look pretty awesome!

Set the dinner table with our fancy Nambe candle sticks, our new dishes and silverware, our awesome napkin rings and new birthday napkins from Mom. So fun to have matching things finally, I felt so grown up!

Started cooking around 1pm. We were doing half and Stephen and Amanda brought the rest. In reality, we both cooked tons and tons of food. Again, having nice pots and pans, knives and bowls was so exciting and helpful!

We got a fancy all organic and happy life turkey from Weaver Street this year. Trent cooked it and it was gorgeous! It got to be served on a platter my great aunt Sarah bought on her honeymoon. Nice little family connection.

Amanda and Stephen arrived with all their goodies. They brought sweet potatoes with greens and lentils, asparagus, tons and tons of spring and summer rolls, and a pumpkin pie.

Table almost ready. I made a delicious broccoli and brussel sprout gratin with Gruyere cheese. So good!

Trent carved the bird!

Sadie continued to wait patiently.

While last minute cooks were crowding the kitchen, I took a break to open my birthday present from Stephen and Amanda... which will be revealed soon. Awesome!

The turkey ready to be served.

Our holiday party. It was a smaller group than we expected, we had some last minute cancellations, but it was lovely to sit with good friends and eat a whole lot. Our neighbor from the cottages, Patrick, joined us.

Sadie was still sure she'd get snacks eventually.

Dinner was awesome, we all ate a ton and then crashed on the couch to watch Monsters vs. Aliens. Very cute and full of California inside jokes. We rallied about halfway through to start on the pies. Patrick brought this cranberry walnut beauty.

I made a maple syrup pumpkin pie (even the crust!) and Amanda brought another pumpkin pie from a bake sale. I love pie!

And then down to business. Amanda and Stephen got us Dance Dance Revolution game! I love it. We proceeded to dance for several hours. Apparently I am a total spaz while playing, but I don't care, it makes me very happy!

Trent was really good.. and much less jumping around required. I didn't believe this.

Stephen gave it a try. I am thrilled about having this game, it will be great to get out pent up energy on cold days and definitely fun for get-togethers. Love it.

Then one thing (one bottle of wine) lead to another and soon we found ourselves rocking out to karaoke. I just love to perform... not really the singing as much. Stephen and I played this for hours, while Trent played guitar and Amanda took a little snooze on the sofa (amazing with all the singing and hullabaloo). Finally around midnight we called it a night and everyone headed home. Some dishes, a few more bites of pie and we called it a successful day!